Article

Connected, Digital, and Managed: Give Your Shared Services Team the Tools for Success

by Bil Khan | SAPinsider, Volume 17, Issue 2

April 26, 2016

Organizations operating with multiple divisions often find that centralizing back-office activities into one shared services center yields significant costs savings and eliminates redundancies. On the path to realizing these benefits, companies often find that leveraging SAP Solution Extensions enhances their shared services centers. Discover which shared services areas can benefit from SAP Solution Extensions and how you can select the tools that will best serve your organization.

For companies operating with several divisions, centralizing back-office activities into one shared services center yields significant cost savings and eliminates unnecessary redundancies across the business. Processes are standardized, flexibility is gained, and a common technology platform enables more visibility into the business. Whether it is finance, data governance, or human resources, many shared services teams have uncovered additional areas of improvement by leveraging SAP Solution Extensions to enhance supplier relationships, monitor enterprise asset master data, capitalize on digital efficiencies, and better manage their workforce.

Connect Suppliers and Buyers

Establishing and maintaining strong supplier relationships is vital for companies to compete in the networked economy. With SAP Invoice Management by OpenText, you can connect to the Ariba Network to establish and maintain supplier relationships. You can use SAP Invoice Management and SAP Digital Content Processing by OpenText as a combined solution and foundation for capturing and processing all types of incoming supplier communications, such as invoices and delivery notes. Using this hybrid solution, you can collaborate in real time with suppliers and find the best deals on materials for producing goods and delivering services as well as leverage dynamic discounting and achieve early payment discounts above and beyond the contractual early payment terms. By establishing a single, comprehensive source-to-procure process, you can reduce time-consuming and error-prone information handoffs.

Data You Can Rely On

When it comes to business decisions, you must be confident that your data is reliable and error free. With SAP Master Data Governance, enterprise asset management extension by Utopia, companies in asset-intensive industries can manage enterprise asset master data in the plant maintenance process from a single source, resulting in streamlined asset lifecycle management that keeps equipment running productively. Similarly, SAP Master Data Governance, retail and fashion management extension by Utopia enables retailers to keep article master data accurate and consistent across systems, resulting in lower out-of-stock costs, higher inventory turns, as well as a better omnichannel experience.

Digital Savings

Digital processes free you from slow and costly paper-based processes. You can easily — and safely — share critical information using SAP API Management, which provides digital access to the provisioning, governance, security, and scalability of enterprise information. It also allows businesses to simplify integration in a heterogeneous environment, including mobile and Internet of Things applications, to lower costs and drive innovation. As an added benefit, implementing the process in user-friendly, mobile applications encourages prompt user adoption as well.

Workforce Management

In addition to increasing user adoption, SAP Solution Extensions can integrate with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central to help manage your workforce. HR processes are complicated by pay rules, compliance requirements, and coordination of schedules. The SAP Time and Attendance Management application by WorkForce Software can help you construct a complete view of your employees with functionality for tracking time and attendance, monitoring absence compliance, and scheduling staff for a smoother process at a lower cost.

Benefits in the US

For US-based companies, the SAP US Benefits Management application by Benefitfocus unifies core HR processes and benefits management so employees can access their personal information at anytime from anywhere.

Lease Accounting and Revenue Recognition Changes

With upcoming regulatory changes in revenue recognition and lease accounting, companies need to modify processes and systems today to ensure compliance and uninterrupted operations tomorrow. SAP Lease Administration by Nakisa enables companies to implement the necessary changes to their revenue recognition and lease contract administration processes to comply with new regulations.

Learn More

No matter the business need, SAP Solution Extensions can help your shared services team operate better. To learn more about the different SAP Solution Extensions, visit bit.ly/1MQBTKe.